


Calling You (And Running In)

by QueenOfNewOrleans22



Series: The Silent Cries [16]
Category: Guns N' Roses
Genre: Angst, Difficult Decisions, Fluff, M/M, Past Abuse, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:41:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25691482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfNewOrleans22/pseuds/QueenOfNewOrleans22
Summary: Slash gets a call, Duff gets a bad feeling.
Relationships: Duff McKagan/Slash
Series: The Silent Cries [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1823191
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Calling You (And Running In)

The phone was ringing. 

Duff covered his face with his pillow, not even about to get up and see what or who was calling. "Slash. It's your turn." He said, voice muffled by the pillow, but still audible enough to travel to the ears of the man sleeping beside him. It was halfway to daylight, and the first beginnings of light were trickling in through the window. Slash said something inaudible, rolled out of bed, and disappeared out into the hallway just outside of the bedroom. It was the first time they'd been together in months, and Duff had really been hoping for a peaceful and quiet night after the chaotic lives they've lead. Apparently, somebody hadn't gotten the memo of them wanting to be left alone. Still awake and unable to fall back asleep, Duff felt the bed sink again when Slash lay back down, but the body beside him was as stiff as a board, and felt cold as a corpse. 

Fingers were grazing his arm, traveling downwards toward his hand, and Duff felt a slender hand fit into his, smooth and like a missing puzzle piece. Duff squeezed it out of instinct, feeling a faint tremor in the fine-boned limb. "Slash?" Duff emerged from beneath the pillow and squinted in the relative darkness. "What happened?" It was more of a demand than a question, and Slash tensed, but before Duff could say anything else, he felt a nose brush up against his neck. "Why does my life suck so much?." The guitarist muttered, and Duff would've laughed if not for that tremor, reminding him of the number of things that had went wrong in their lives before. "Because we're rock stars. Who was it, press? They usually don't call so early..." Duff drifted off, thinking. If it had something to do with Izzy or Steven or a former bandmate, then he would've said so already. 

"Axl goddamn Rose." 

Duff stiffened. The room was suddenly very cold, and it was like all the air had been zapped from his lungs. "What the fuck did that little prick want?" Duff asked, anger starting to seep in. Couldn't he just leave well enough alone? "What'd he say?" He repeated when an answer wasn't forthcoming. All sorts of questions were going through his mind at the speed of a thousand racehorses, and the one man who had the answers that Duff needed and wanted was silent. 

A few more minutes went by. Slash opened his mouth and then closed it again. The tremor lessened. Duff waited patiently, just like he'd been doing for many years now. Life, as he had learned, was just one big waiting game. "He wants us. You, me. Izzy, maybe, not Steven, to rejoin the band." Slash answered eventually. He pulled away a split second before Duff sat straight up, his heart pounding in his ears. 

" _What?"_

Slash nodded. He looked a combination of angry and scared. "He told me to think about it." He said. 

Duff slipped out of bed and started pacing. Sleep long forgotten, he was now too angry to think. "Axl thinks that we'd go back? What happened, he saw that Velvet Revolver was gone and done and decided to swoop in like an underfed vulture at a carcass?" And then he saw the look in Slash's dark eyes, and felt his heart drop. "You're not thinking about going back. After everything that man has done to you?" 

Never one to be left out, Slash stood up again and crossed the bed to stand next to Duff. "I don't know what I want. Your opinion and what Izzy's gonna do matters too but...what are we supposed to do, play guitars on YouTube and show up on talk shows for the rest of our lives? I'm not going to fool myself into thinking Axl's changed, but I just want to focus on music. When we play music, we never fight. It's when it gets personal that everybody starts to lose their temper." 

He was right. As much as Duff loathed to admit it, Slash was right and there was nothing that could be done about it. Sighing, he reached out and placed his hand on the side of Slash's face, but the younger man stepped foward, wrapping his arms around Duff's waist and, well, he certainly wasn't going to say no to that. "I'm sorry. If you're not comfortable with it then I won't do it, you're right-" 

Duff laughed, burying his face in familiar hair and losing himself in the man he'd gotten a hold of and would never let go. "That's a first." He said. "No, you've got a point...maybe since we won't be as close, then it'll be okay. But I'm a part of this stupid reincarnation to, and if he so much as raises his voice then I'm throwing you over my shoulder and taking you back here, got it?" The seriousness of the situation was broken by Slash's laughter, by kisses pressed against his jaw. "There's nobody else I'd rather have with me." 


End file.
